The trials and tribulations of making a site work across multiple devices seamlessly, all while converting our guides from paper into a digital format at the same time. For our annual K12 Technology Summit we dared to do something that we had never done before. Something that would truly take us out of our comfort zone yet also set us apart from our competitors. We wanted to go paperless for a summit, what better time than now.
Before we dive into the nitty gritty details about this event, here is a bit of a back story. Early this year we experimented with our first event ever by having an unannounced launch of a mobile site by only telling people verbally at the event. We decided to use our Sustainable Operations Summit as the event to do this with. The first iteration of the site was definitely one that was in alpha version. The site had some bugs, performance was slow, a few incompatibility issues, and honestly it just didn't look that great even by mobile standards. However though people definitely loved the ability to take their program guide with them and it was straightforward and easy to use.
To address the primary concerns/bugs that presented themselves at the Sustainable Operations Summit we had to decide whether to make the app fully native on the device or make a web based application. We had gone back and forth on whether a native application would have seemed more logical fit instead of the mobile website, however in order to do that we would have to create and maintain an app for at least the 3 primary platforms (iOS, Android, and Blackberry). In the end we decided to go the web based route and to look at the JQuery Mobile Platform for the next summit.
So while the site had to be largely changed the results were vastly improved and we were thrilled. Loading time on site was now tremendously improved. With the old platform we used it was taking users up to a half a minute to load all the elements on their device. With the enhanced structure of the site users were able to load any page in only a few short seconds. The second benefit of the new platform was device compatibility. This is imperative if you are running an event and expect hundreds of users to be able to access it no problem.
So after the subsequent events we tested the mobile site further, we used the Retail Facilities Summit, Research Facilities Forum, and Healthcare Facilities Summit as test events. Each event was better than the last in regards to mobile performance and feedback from our attendees.
It was decided that since the site had been proven time and time again of being a strong mobile platform for past events we were going to let it fly solo and rid ourselves of the on-site guide and go paperless. We thought what better event to try this on than a tech event where there is a topic on “Bring Your Own Device”? Many of the CIOs at the event have been or are planning on implementing this strategy of having student’s use their own devices to enhance the learning curriculum. This is exactly what we wanted to do with the mobile site this year, enhance the learning experience through easy knowledge exchange that is both fun and useful.As with any sudden changes there was definitely hesitation in-house on how we can make sure we do this with very little to no errors since it is the primary form of communication between us and our attendees. To error on the side of caution, we decided that the personalized agendas still be distributed through paper form, that way even if there were any outages, internet hiccups in the resort, and so on, we would still be covered.
The site for K12 Tech was created for this event was actually a hybrid of meshing both JQM and Wordpress together. While not everything was done through the Wordpress backend, the heavy lifting of the photostream, additional mobile optimization, iPad detection, and chat functionality was.
To help with the overall process, communication was key. We made sure to send communication materials to all attendees that the guide would be completely mobile. On Sunday we further reinforced this by sending another email of the site link along with the ability for them to ask questions if they had any technical issues at all with the site. Also during registration, we had an iPad on site to give a thorough demonstration if any attendees had any questions about the site and its functionality.
Overall looking back at the site as it performed at the event, there were only 2 very minor errors/bugs that happened and had staggering statistics for the event considering the number of people that had attended. On site for the K12 Tech summit we had 145 attendees; we had 215 unique visitors to the site! Therefore we had people using multiple devices to access the site. The most popular device used for the site was the iPad followed closely by the iPhone. Another impressive statistic was time on site, which came in at a staggering 4:55!
Given the feedback from the attendees, we are anxiously looking forward to our next summit that will also feature an integrated mobile site, the StoreTech Summit in June, 2012. For this event, we look to improve an already a great platform and take it to the next level with it being fully integrated into Wordpress along with giving users additional features that will be announced in the coming months.
Shawn Burns is the Web Services Manager with CraigMichaels. He has acted in the role since July of this year and started with the company in October 2010. For any questions regarding the mobile site feel free to contact him – sburns AT craigmichaelsinc.com
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